De naturis rerum
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De naturis rerum (On the Natures of Things) was a work by Alexander Neckam, an English scholar born in 1157. This text was a compilation of scientific information that was novel to western Europe at the time, though it was already known to Greek and Muslim scholars.1
Neckam was a theology instructor at Oxford and later an Augustinian abbot. His textbook De utensilibus is noted as the earliest European writing to mention the magnetic compass as a navigational aid. De naturis rerum was a two-part introduction to a commentary on the Book of Ecclesiastes.1
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